Driven by in-building wireless coverage requirements and the growing influx of mobile data traffic, a conventional macrocell based cellular network deployment is not deemed to be a sufficient solution to address the coverage and capacity needs of today’s wireless subscribers.

Mobile operators are thus increasing their investments in Heterogeneous Network or HetNet infrastructure such as strategically deployed small cells, carrier Wi-Fi and DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems), to cope with growing capacity and coverage requirements. Adding further to the heterogeneity is the shift towards a C-RAN (Centralized RAN) architecture, which centralizes baseband functionality to be shared across a large number of distributed radio nodes. In comparison to standalone clusters of base stations, C-RAN provides significant performance and economic benefits such as baseband pooling, enhanced coordination between cells, virtualization, network extensibility and energy efficiency.

Driven by the thriving ecosystem, we expect small cell, carrier Wi-Fi, C-RAN and DAS investments to account for nearly $13 Billion by the end of 2016. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% between 2016 and 2020, as mobile operators remain committed to tackle the continued growth of mobile data traffic and evolving coverage requirements.